I've been kind of thinking the amount of fools in power who do not understand where their value comes from outnumber those who do by a long shot these days. Failsons of failsons of all the old money who were just as evil but at least knew how the game worked. So the result of this is that now all of these lumps think that the money they have was always there and will always be there and they can do whatever they want. Which I guess to be fair has been the case for a long time, but the mammon machine doesn't care and I'm waiting for the day they find out.

The money model, best articulated in Russell’s 1998 book, Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract, posits that disabled people are not, as they are often framed in dominant culture, a “burden to society,” but are actually a valuable resource. As Russell explains: “…persons who do not offer a body which will enhance profitmaking as laborers are used to shore up US capitalism by other means.” Disabled people are a nexus around which the capacity for surplus labor power can be built (often financed in part by federal money)—whole sectors of our economy have sprung forth from the money model, which has normalized the commodification of things, systems, and places that maintain disabled bodies in pursuit of squeezing profit from the money which passes through disabled people towards their survival and care. For example, nursing homes, Russell argued, are not places of rest and comfort, but a strategy for commodifying the “least productive” so that they can both be “made of use to the economic order” and free up the labor supply of those who love and wish to care for them. This system benefits neither the workers nor disabled people, only what Russell called the “owning class.” US disability policy, instead of being oriented around supporting the needs of disabled people, sanctions and facilitates the capitalist capture of nearly all aspects of disablement, impairment, chronic illness, and disability, including the way that “reasonable accommodations” are commodified (as explored by Ruth Colker in her essay for this symposium).

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type of person who says "i don't need to read theory I read history" and then says communism is fascism lol. never ever ever take any american seriously. not even (especially) the "leftists"

you are one of the people I respect the most on this site. I was not kidding when I said that I think of you every time somebody looks at me weird for masking in public. I care about you and your opinion very much, and I appreciate your taking the time to talk with me. in advance, I want to say that I have tried hard to make sure there was nothing hurtful or dismissive in this message, but if I failed in that or otherwise made this come across poorly, I would very much like to talk it out because the absolute last thing I want to do is hurt you.

That's very flattering, thank you. I was not hurt by anything, for the record, but I felt compelled to respond anyway. The "be kind because people can change" idea can be a conduit for a lot of unintended damage, I think, but this:

I just think that sometimes we are quick to assume shitheadedness of each other, and I wish that were not the case. and tbqh, considering how often frauddogg called out other em_poc users as settlers or crackers just because they didn't post regularly in the em_poc megathread (is that required for all em_poc users?), I think it would help reduce the number of friendly-fire incidents.

is sensible, and I agree. I recall something happening recently with @Erika3sis@hexbear.net where I got on her case for what I thought was very typical COVID minimization, but she responded very openly and with a mind for actual change, so I changed my approach afterward. I hope my apologies were good enough in that moment, but I'd like to think that's how it can all be handled... maybe that is my own autistic naivete.

it's also part of the CoC, which I know you know better than I do. you've been here much longer, and you're a mod.

Well, being a mod in any community on this platform doesn't mean much for site-wide policy unless you're also an admin, and I don't even really do much in the first place, hah.

I want to be completely respectful to you, because I have seen you around and I like you, but I might fail because this is a topic very close to me and I very much disagree with you. It is not the onus of the oppressed to treat anyone with good faith. frauddog had a massive L with the military history brought up when it was that was not held and that is very unfortunate and does indeed color null at least a little bit differently for me, but even with that in mind and in regard to null's conduct in pretty much every other instance, null had my respect because null never held water for anyone, and that energy is what is actually needed to affect change. I am not going to hold water for fools that want me dead in action or in spirit, and that's a whole lot of fucking people right now, even well-meaning people. It was the case for frauddog, too. I haven't gotten anyone to go back to wearing masks by being nice to them, by giving them the grace I am always denied. I tried that for 4 years and it got me chewed up and spat out. They deny my humanity either way; that is the default mode. So why would I be nice about it? If they want to change they have to want to change, and a lot of people, especially in the imperial core, simply are not there. That includes a lot of people here, too. There's a reason this place is hemorrhaging POC users, and I think we should pay attention to that. I grew up a stupid evangelical Southern Baptist as well, but changing my behavior was never supposed to be on anyone else; I don't blame anyone who heard me talking about evolution like it was the devil's thoughts incarnate on the serebii.net forums in 2003 and decided I was some dumbass not worth talking to, and you shouldn't either. None of them talking to me with kindness changed my mind then, only my own curiosity and dissatisfaction much later in life led to me seeking this out for myself. I think this is a much more complicated issue than simply "we must treat everyone with patience and kindness because people can change"; people are dying. We are at war and the time for kindness to those unwilling to show they deserve it is long past, and frankly vanishingly few people deserve it. Kindness is not a given at all times or by default. I deal with everyone who isn't already in my good graces with immense distrust and vigilance. Believing people can change does nothing for me, but it sure is a nice idea, isn't it? I trust in what people do, in what they show me, and when they show me, I don't believe in anything else. That is all there is.

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Read (a lot), talk to people online, play video games, occasionally work on a craft if I'm feeling it. It's not so bad.

It is quite a lot! I believe Russell goes into this in Capitalism and Disability in the very first chapter, even. It turns out the disabled are a very, very lucrative front to funneling government funds back into real estate, healthcare…

I met a very kind person in a covid activist group recently, but a conversation we were having in the group led me to showing them Masses, Elites and Rebels and asking what their thoughts were. They mentioned specifically the defense of China re: Xinjiang was disturbing and off-putting to the points of the rest of the essay and I immediately fell to 🫠 as they said it was “completely counter to the facts we know from 2022”. They also said they disliked his defense of Russia and that’s where I had to check out.

I wanted to say something, but tbh I haven’t had the energy to contest this particular set of brainworms for a long time. I know Day himself has even written about it, in early 2021 IIRC, but something tells me it will not be worth going through the potential cognitohazards to talk about it anymore if this is where this person has landed in 2025. I am very sad, is what I mean to say. How have you navigated this in spaces of people ostensibly in your side of the ring with other issues? I know it doesn’t really matter what one other person living in the imperial core thinks about any of this… perhaps this is something I need to learn to just let be for the sake of everything else, but it sure doesn’t feel good, especially since they were willing to indulge me and read the damn thing in the first place.

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I have a genuine question, why on earth keep going to that website? What is there that can't be had elsewhere? I have not entertained anything about that website since very early high school days in 2007, I cannot imagine anything at all that reading it has to offer me today.

is someone calling it “the rona” kind of a yellow flag for anyone else or just me lol

@gingerbrat@hexbear.net & @Kuori@hexbear.net, your comments really moved me. It’s all just internet posting but unlike some people I am acutely aware that every letter we see on screen is made by other human beings, ones we can name and recognize, who can name and recognize us. It’s nice to be reminded. Thank you.

Is that so? Am I? Well, if you say so.

Having things happen to my fingers is one of my worst nightmares, I hope you are managing ok. I have terrible RSI from decades of computer jobs but totally missing the use of even some of my fingers sounds awful too.

genuinely do not know what i expected out of a site with roots in dirtbag left shit. i never interacted with this nonsense a decade ago for this reason. every time i keep hoping things are different and I guess they are a little bit compared to, like, 2014 or whatever but it's just not worth the effort anymore

idk what to tell you if you think shit like "not all men" and "lose weight fatty" isn't reactionary. this is why your website sucks, not the other stuff

Yeah, the ones that sound exactly like this guy lol

holy shit dude lol you have read nothing in this thread

Looots of stuff like this adding up, yeah.